Brad Gray
Plastic
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2013
- Location
- Central Indiana USA
Hello,
Brand new to everything here. I'm an aspiring bladesmith that thought it would be good to be able to mill my handle and guard parts. Looked at simple, small tabletop mills, then fell under influence of evil friend toolmaker, urging me to get full-size mill. Found Millport 3-KVH with DRO and Kwik-Switch 200 and some collets. Bought for $1100, and moved 3000# machine with help of evil friend. I have single phase service. No problem, get static converter. Uh-oh, converter must be real close to machine and has some strategic limitations (as in, must use separate start-up switch or breaker as on-off switch for motor, only so many start-ups per hour etc.). No problem, get rotary converter. Uh-oh, rotary converters relatively expensive. No problem, found 3-HP Phoenix rotary converter for $299, free shipping on E-Bay. Company states this will start 3-HP mill motor (despite most other rotary converter sellers stating you should get converter rated 1.5-2 times your motor power for good start-ups.) Wired up rotary converter properly, started converter no problem, kick on mill and motor barely moves. No problem, call up much-ballyhooed tech help at company. Tech help extremely brusque dealing with anyone not an electrician or engineer, but says motor must be currently wired for high voltage and must be changed to low voltage for converter to start it. No problem, should be wiring diagrams on motor plate and inside motor wiring box. Uh-oh, motor is Jih Chin Taiwanese manufacture, and diagram on motor plate is X-Y-Z categories and u, uu, v, vv, w, ww in nature and not in 1-2-3 numbers as American motors. Plus, diagram for low and high voltage exactly the same. To add to bliss, not all 9 wires from motor are labeled as in diagram. Power wires in are labeled T1, T2, T3, as are the three red motor wires attached to them. Other 6 red motor wires are labeled and paired as: X-to-UU, Y-to-VV and Z-to-WW. No problem, will look on Internet for Taiwanese to American equivalent diagram, or some other info to straighten out mess. Can't find any such information. OK, look at Standard diagrams and try to extrapolate to my wires. Did continuity tests of wires, and only 3 of 9 motor wires showed common continuity, (coincidentally the ones labeled T1, T2, and T3) so I concluded motor must be? WYE (Y) wound and tried to extapolate off of that diagram. Attempted to reconnect wiring in a low voltage configuration and again to power motor. This time, motor seems to want to grudgingly turn, but after 5 seconds or so, 20amp breaker pops. Am I making progress? Back to our friendly tech help (sarcasm implied) who feels that no other way to go but take motor in to professional electrician to get wiring sorted out and bench-test motor. He refused to speculate on whether they had recommended a too low-powered converter for my application.
Sorry for long story, but I'm sure some of you have been there. I am going in to a professional shop tomorrow with my notes, charts and diagrams and try to get help. I would like to try and just take the motor off machine and into shop, but can see a whole new opportunity for getting in over my head. (Did I mention the mill weighs 3000 pounds?) I might try and get industrial electrician out to house, but remember that I don't have 3-phase power and there are other considerations.
I see several possibilities here, alone and possibly in combination:
1) Wiring possibly, even likely, still wrong.
2) Mill could have motor problems, although it was reportedly working fine when taken out of service in the prior home
3 Even if wiring is correct, and motor OK, rotary converter may well be undersized for application.
Any fresh takes on this? How much trouble to pull motor from Bridgeport-type variable speed head?
Thanks and Sorry for the Rude Intro ,
Brad Gray
Brand new to everything here. I'm an aspiring bladesmith that thought it would be good to be able to mill my handle and guard parts. Looked at simple, small tabletop mills, then fell under influence of evil friend toolmaker, urging me to get full-size mill. Found Millport 3-KVH with DRO and Kwik-Switch 200 and some collets. Bought for $1100, and moved 3000# machine with help of evil friend. I have single phase service. No problem, get static converter. Uh-oh, converter must be real close to machine and has some strategic limitations (as in, must use separate start-up switch or breaker as on-off switch for motor, only so many start-ups per hour etc.). No problem, get rotary converter. Uh-oh, rotary converters relatively expensive. No problem, found 3-HP Phoenix rotary converter for $299, free shipping on E-Bay. Company states this will start 3-HP mill motor (despite most other rotary converter sellers stating you should get converter rated 1.5-2 times your motor power for good start-ups.) Wired up rotary converter properly, started converter no problem, kick on mill and motor barely moves. No problem, call up much-ballyhooed tech help at company. Tech help extremely brusque dealing with anyone not an electrician or engineer, but says motor must be currently wired for high voltage and must be changed to low voltage for converter to start it. No problem, should be wiring diagrams on motor plate and inside motor wiring box. Uh-oh, motor is Jih Chin Taiwanese manufacture, and diagram on motor plate is X-Y-Z categories and u, uu, v, vv, w, ww in nature and not in 1-2-3 numbers as American motors. Plus, diagram for low and high voltage exactly the same. To add to bliss, not all 9 wires from motor are labeled as in diagram. Power wires in are labeled T1, T2, T3, as are the three red motor wires attached to them. Other 6 red motor wires are labeled and paired as: X-to-UU, Y-to-VV and Z-to-WW. No problem, will look on Internet for Taiwanese to American equivalent diagram, or some other info to straighten out mess. Can't find any such information. OK, look at Standard diagrams and try to extrapolate to my wires. Did continuity tests of wires, and only 3 of 9 motor wires showed common continuity, (coincidentally the ones labeled T1, T2, and T3) so I concluded motor must be? WYE (Y) wound and tried to extapolate off of that diagram. Attempted to reconnect wiring in a low voltage configuration and again to power motor. This time, motor seems to want to grudgingly turn, but after 5 seconds or so, 20amp breaker pops. Am I making progress? Back to our friendly tech help (sarcasm implied) who feels that no other way to go but take motor in to professional electrician to get wiring sorted out and bench-test motor. He refused to speculate on whether they had recommended a too low-powered converter for my application.
Sorry for long story, but I'm sure some of you have been there. I am going in to a professional shop tomorrow with my notes, charts and diagrams and try to get help. I would like to try and just take the motor off machine and into shop, but can see a whole new opportunity for getting in over my head. (Did I mention the mill weighs 3000 pounds?) I might try and get industrial electrician out to house, but remember that I don't have 3-phase power and there are other considerations.
I see several possibilities here, alone and possibly in combination:
1) Wiring possibly, even likely, still wrong.
2) Mill could have motor problems, although it was reportedly working fine when taken out of service in the prior home
3 Even if wiring is correct, and motor OK, rotary converter may well be undersized for application.
Any fresh takes on this? How much trouble to pull motor from Bridgeport-type variable speed head?
Thanks and Sorry for the Rude Intro ,
Brad Gray